Jennifer Lopez was told to ‘lose a few pounds’ by people in entertainment industry

Jennifer Lopez opened up about past body scrutiny in a new interview. (Laura Thompson/New York Daily News)

Jennifer Lopez says she faced scrutiny about her body from people in the entertainment industry — but she never let it get to her.

"They'd say, 'You should lose a few pounds,' or 'You should do this or do that.' It finally got to the point that I was like, 'This is who I am. I'm shaped like this,'" Lopez recalls in a new cover story for InStyle magazine.

Advertisement

"Everybody I grew up with looked like that, and they were all beautiful to me," she continued. "I didn't see anything wrong with it. I still don't!"

The 48-year-old star — who rose to fame in the 1990s as a dancer, actress and pop star — explained that she comes from a generation where people were fixated on models who wore a size zero.

But she always embraced her curvy figure.

"So many people have come up to me over the years — famous people, people I meet on the street, fans, everybody — and they say that very thing: 'Thank you so much. I have the same type of body. I used to think I was fat, but now I feel beautiful,'" Lopez told the magazine.

Lopez remains one of the most prominent musical artists in the industry nearly two decades after she released her first album in 1999.

Jennifer Lopez's hottest moments

Her latest single "El Anillo" — a song about a woman who's wondering if she'll ever get an engagement ring from her significant other — made headlines recently after she explained the song's meaning last Wednesday on the "Tonight Show."

Host Jimmy Fallon jokingly asked if Lopez's boyfriend, former Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, was watching as they talked about the engagement ring song.

"No pressure," Lopez replied.

A-Rod then appeared on the show the following night, but wouldn't reveal whether he'd given any thought to proposing to Lopez.

Rodriguez, 43, did admit that he made a connection between himself and the song when he first saw its lyrics.

"I read the song and I go, 'Babe, it sounds like they're talking about us.' And she goes, 'Yeah, they made it for me,'" he told Fallon. "I heard it for the first time and I knew it was going to be a smash the first time I heard it."